The human layer
Is humanity’s impact on its environment so huge that the planet has entered a new geological era: the Anthropocene? The idea is gaining ground – and dividing scientists
By Helen Gordon
Concrete is a new kind of rock…We’ve made about 500 billion tonnes of it, which is enough for one kilo for every square metre of the Earth’s surface, land and sea.”
In the summer of 2015 Jan Zalasiewicz, professor of palaeobiology at the University of Leicester, was speaking at the Tate Modern as part of the Anthropocene Project conference. Concrete, he explained, can be considered a characteristic deposit of the Anthropocene Epoch just as coal is of the Carboniferous Period.
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